U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order revoking several directives issued by former President Donald Trump, including one to establish a "National Garden of American Heroes" with statues of hundreds of prominent Americans, some of them controversial because of their records on race.

The order also revoked Trump's prioritizing of punishment for people caught vandalizing statues or monuments.

The former president took the two measures in response to protests and vandalism targeting monuments of controversial historic figures amid nationwide demonstrations against racial injustice in the wake of the death of African American George Floyd on May 25 last year.

Trump visited Mount Rushmore in the state of South Dakota on the eve of July 4 Independence Day last year, accusing "angry mobs" of waging "a merciless campaign" to wipe out U.S. history while pledging to construct a "National Garden of American Heroes" that will feature statues of "the greatest Americans to ever live."

Under the executive order from Biden, a May 2020 order signed by Trump that directed federal agencies to review Section 230, a law that provides protections to social media companies, was also revoked.